Santa Ana council plans closed meeting on two officials

SANTA ANA – The City Council will hold a closed-door meeting Thursday to discuss the performance of the city manager and city attorney.

A notice of the special meeting, called by council members David Benavides, Vincent Sarmiento, Sal Tinajero and Michele Martinez, went out Wednesday – in the middle of a week when City Hall is closed for the holidays. The agenda notes only that the closed session is an evaluation of City Manager Paul Walters and City Attorney Sonia Carvalho.

Tinajero, the mayor pro tem, said the meeting was called during the holiday week because at least two of the council members plan to leave town and council members wanted to have the session before year's end.

He and other council members set up the evaluation so that the two appointed officials could discuss issues they've addressed in the past year and how they will deal with them in the future. At the same time, the council, with two new members, will have an opportunity to describe its vision and to ask questions.

Among the issues the city has had to grapple with, he noted, are the end of redevelopment, ongoing discussions about whether to dismantle a controversial downtown property improvement district known as the PBID and contract negotiations that will affect the city's budget.

"Everyone needs to hear what the city manager's and city attorney's game plan is for moving forward," he said.

"I hear that people are saying that we want to terminate the city manager or city attorney," he said "It is way too premature to even make a comment on it. It's not what this is about."

Benavides said he has heard of no plans to take adverse action against the two officials. Walters, who had been the city's police chief and interim city manager, in June was appointed by a unanimous council as city manager and to the new position of police commissioner.

Benavides noted that City Clerk Maria Huizar was evaluated about two or three months ago.

"It's an opportunity to hear their perspectives and to share with them some of our vision and direction," Benavides said.

"It's premature to have any outcomes in mind," he added.

Carvalho, who was hired as the city attorney in April, said that her contract called for an evaluation after a six-month period.

Mayor Miguel Pulido has found himself at odds with the four council members who called Thursday's meeting. In the summer, they also called a special meeting to place before voters a measure to impose term limits on the mayor's office. It was approved by voters in November.

"I wouldn't do a 24-hour meeting notice for a meeting of this nature," Pulido said of the move. "It's too important."

The closed-door meeting is set for 1:15 p.m. at the council chamber, 22 Civic Center Plaza.